Valentino Will Die

December 7, 2020
Casey’s enjoyable sequel to 2019’s The Wrong Girl finds 21-year-old silent movie star Bianca LaBelle, who shot to fame in “a series of wildly popular adventure pictures about the indomitable world traveler, journalist, and sometime spy, Bianca Dangereuse,” set to embark on a new film, costarring with her good friend Rudy Valentino. The two are having a heart-to-heart one night by her L.A. swimming pool when Rudy tells her he’s received several threatening letters, each with the same message: “Valentino will die.” On a trip to New York, Rudy does indeed become ill, and is hospitalized. Bianca travels to New York to be at his bedside. Still weak, Rudy asks Bianca to find out who might have poisoned him. Bianca calls on PI Ted Oliver to help, unaware that Ted’s also investigating Rudy on behalf of a gangster known as the Irish godmother. Casey smoothly incorporates real events and people into a plot that’s more thriller than mystery. Lovers of old movies and Hollywood gossip will have fun.